1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and, more particularly, to an information processing apparatus that includes a built-in watchdog timer.
2. Description of the Related Art
This type of information processing apparatus uses a central processing unit (CPU) to execute software necessary for the apparatus to operate. The watchdog timer monitors the operation of the software and, in the case where the software operation stops, resets the CPU. This mechanism is implemented with the use of a notification called a watchdog toggle. Specifically, the CPU periodically sends a watchdog toggle notification to the watchdog timer while the software is running. If the software stops for some reason, the watchdog toggle notification from the CPU ceases. After a given period of time during which there is no watchdog toggle notification, the watchdog timer commands the CPU to reset. Receiving the command, the CPU reboots and executes the software anew. The information processing apparatus thus recovers to normal operation.
Although resetting by the watchdog timer enables the information processing apparatus to recover to normal operation, this does not allow the information processing apparatus to retain information such as what process or which application has been executed by the CPU and the operation states of other hardware components than the CPU at the time of the reset. Therefore, when the cause of failure is to be identified later, a user of the information processing apparatus needs to manually collect necessary information and deal with the subsequent recovery process.